Just got back from the plein air painting event in Tarpon Springs, "Tarpon Springs Paint and Photo". My wonderful friend Elaine Hahn put me up in her gorgeous home right on the water. Every morning we woke with the sunrise and raced to paint as the light moved through the coolness of the morning. We shared some great Greek food, (one of my faves) and sipped wine as the sun went down over the bay. One of our favorite spots is Brooker Creek Preserve. Acres of wild Florida right in the middle of Pinellas County.

Here's a painting I did from a little bridge over the creek that runs through the park. The light filtered into the tree canopy and changed by the minute. We spent two mornings there until the yellow deer flies ran us off. Poor Elaine was up all night scratching bug bites for the rest of the paint out. Right before we packed up and left the scene, a lone Ibis decided to skim the waterway with it's bill in search of a treat. Can you see him? I snapped a few photos and added him as the finishing touch. "Ibis in a Quiet Moment" 11x14 oil on linen. I was so excited to hear my name called as the winner of the Friends of Brooker Creek Award with this painting. It will be on display at the Heritage Museum until this weekend. Hope you get the chance to view all the works there this week.

Starting the new year off with a BANG! My first show of the year was Art Festival Beth-El. An invitational fundraiser for Temple Beth-El in St. Petersburg, FL now it's 45th year. What an event! What an honor to be invited! My work was in the Boutique area because most of my boxes are smallish compared to the scale of the paintings in the main gallery. But small and intimate works are my comfort zone. I delivered the work a week prior to the show date, now I had to get ME ready to be seen.

This part of the project was a bit more challenging. The only things I had in my closet that were presentable were two pairs of slacks. One black, one gray, and one shirt that read "We Farm, You Eat". I didn't think the shirt would make the right statement, so off to the very strange and confusing world of clothes shopping.

Remember that show, "What Not to Wear"? O, how I wished Stacey and Clinton would have jumped out of one of the clothes racks at Ross. Some people are good at this; I am not one of them. Nor do I pretend to be. "Focus on the color black," I told myself. "and just get something that will cover the top of you." I gave myself that goal and to stay away from the three-way mirror in the dressing room. Thankfully, I found several black upper garments that fit and were on sale. I still wasn't sure of my choices, so I took all of it to Mom's, along with every black shoe I could find in my closet, and she new what to do.

Mom went as my guest and we both arrived at the opening looking great! The first thing they said at the reception table was congratulations! I had won an award! Here's a picture of me next to the display of my work. Check out the red ribbon. Yes, I am wearing a non-black shirt. Mom ended up loaning me one after all.

The newness of this year is still making me smile. I feel like I'm shedding the skin of the old and my wings are just drying out, getting ready to flap for the first time. The only thing outwardly that has changed is the date. Now I write an "18" in the little space behind the "20" on my checks. But on the inside, I'm bubbling up with ideas for paintings and goals and questions about what to write down in my calendar. Can you believe I've already purchased five planners? This is not a good sign. Decisions have to be made, for crying out loud. If I can't decide on my planner, how am I going to decide which way to go in my artwork this year? I want to plein air paint, I want to assemble a still life, I want to paint a portrait, I want to make a collage, I want to teach a class. And I want to do it all next week. Seriously, I'm planning more art time this year. That's one of my goals. Another is to organize and simplify my stuff and my house so I can get more studio time. And, maybe the most important one, is to sing more. Just sing. Not on stage or anything. Just singing wherever I am. So you might just hear me from across the room. If you do, feel free to join in.

Modern Day Gleaning. That's a better description for the kind of recycling that happens in my studio. Not so much to keep it out of the landfill, (although that's a good thing too), but there's more excitement involved here. Like treasure hunting. Like secret finding. Everyday is a safari, my eyes scanning the jungle, ears listening for those clues that someone is willing to part with a particular item. Like light bulbs. Non-working ones of course. Or rusty, square nuts. Those two things can make my stomach fill with butterflies. Even as a kid I scanned the gutters for bottle caps and old screws. There's a certain giddiness in getting something for free. You know there is. Stuff is the stuff that fills my space. The challenge is carving out table space to put it all together.